I have been in Bali for the last two months… it’s wonderful to be in such a nurturing environment….

It soothes the soul and reconnects the human spirit to the natural world.

I feel so blessed to be here and to feel the healing power of the earth… here in this spot, by the river, looking down to the sea.

When you arrive in Bali as a stranger you will be surprised how warm, happy and welcoming the people are…

They are genuinely loving and inclusive… how can this be so…. after centuries of slavery and mistreatment, by their own Maharajah’s, the Dutch plantation owners, the Japanese invaders and now the abusive Multi National Corporations?

I believe it’s because the Balinese have a secret.

As a culture (not Indonesia) the Balinese are truly the last Magicians on earth working in the old ways….

This is why we understand each other…. this is why it is such a healing environment for me…

Do you remember the Bali Bomb Attack?

One year, one month and one day after 9/11…. Manufactured by the same force as 9/11 for the same purpose…. to get the troops to Iraq… to protect the oil owned by some very greedy irresponsible individuals called corporations who have the power through control of the media to command governments…

After that bomb which killed 220 people and engaged 88 countries in a huge international interconnected healing process….

The Balinese Priests found in their ancient records a prophesy, about  just such a catastrophic event and a clear list of instructions for the priests on how to ‘space clear’ and ‘restart and heal the heart’ of the island!

It was transcribed six hundred years earlier, from a vision by a priestess while praying in the Temple high up on Batu Karo, the nearest volcanic mountain to the retreat center.

Yes that’s right! Bali is truly a land of organic magic.

The priests of the old land based religion found the instructions for the ceremonies to be performed to restart the heart of the island…

Everyone joined in….. for months large groups of men clad in black shirts and a black and white checked sarongs (the black and white checked sarongs representing the integration of the dark and the light,)  walked the back streets of villages with big wooden bells on their chests, holding them with both hands, in unison they would shake the bell and make the sound of an enormous heart beat that traveled out over the land through the villages, the rice fields, the coconut plantations and down through the rivers onto the beaches….

The sound seemed to reactivate all parts of the island….

It was a truly thrilling experience, to be in the midst of such single minded devotion to the energetic health of mother earth, ‘Dewi Sri’ in Balinese.

As an active alchemist and ritual magician I was fascinated by the highly organized ceremonies prepared and carried out in a rolling fashion across the island… by a cultural system dedicated to the energetic health of their land and the inner health and harmony of their people.  Such love and devotion with no promotion or advertising or resistance was amazing to watch…..

How do the people of Bali stay so calm and so clearly happy despite being enslaved and abused in all manner of ways for centuries?

There are perhaps a variety of answers to this question….

One of their secrets,  is they have developed annual space clearing rituals as a context for whole communities to express their creativity coupled with rage and fear appropriately… rather than in petty ways, against each other and more importantly they wisely created ‘time’ to integrate the outcome…. A change in frequency… How amazing is that!?

The time of year they chose to perform this profound social ritual for peace by expressing creative rage aligns with Easter in the Christian experience, the Passover for the Jewish community, it includes the ideas of the Wicker Man and in more recent times the modern American Mystics of ‘Burning Man’…. in US underground culture.

The rule is … if you don’t let loose once a year, your negative energy will overcome you and disturb the harmony of the village…
Now we all know that’s true!

I have been thinking about this for a while and now I am going to do something about it!

I’m going to stop trying so hard and relax, play, dance, sing and swim in the sacred dance of ceremonial life in Bali for ten days….

We get to build two giant size bamboo puppets from all local materials. They are known as ‘The Ogoh Ogoh’ (literal translation ‘more than one Ogre’). The night of the burning…. On the river beach…. We get to scream and rage with the village and set them on fire…..

By the end of the “Night of Fires”, ‘The Ogoh Ogoh’ have finished their important work… they are a cosmic sponge for all forms of evil, all forms of disharmony in the body, mind and spirit of communities and the individuals.

Join me… let’s find out what we can do together…
Nyepi 2010… read all about the workshop, what we will be doing and how to join in here…

I’m ready to have fun, play and create with my soul family, I’m ready to express my feelings and find a new level of inner peace on the day of silence… are you interested?

Blazing tales of wonder,
Remembering all we have ever been and are about to become…… S xxx

Hi Everyone,

We are all living through an extraordinary time in history. There is no denying it now!
I have been working on a mosaic floor for the front veranda of the Mystery School in Hawaii. I found a beautiful soft green tile  with silver streaks through it when I was last in Bali. I had it cut into dolphins especially for this project.

The world is spinning and seems to be spiraling into a cashless vacuum, I wonder where it all went? As I am working on the mosaic I find it very relaxing, it is a functional art form that allows for almost immediate reward for effort. For the this reason it makes me feel less frustrated at my own powerlessness as the world comes to terms with what is happening.

I was working on my mosaic tonight with the fire burning in the round. The fire pit surrounded by the twelve wise Fire Turtles who stand guard at the front of the school, thinking about this situation…..

We live in a closed circuit world! All the gold that was ever dug up from the earth is still here! It didn’t evaporate! All the silver that was ever mined is still on the earth. All the money in circulation…. None of this was shot off into space! Its all here on the earth, held in stockpiles by old family executors, in ancient secret stashed across the globe, from Zurich to Scotland to China….. And a million other places.

So I would like to say to you, the holders of these great stores of wealth that have been taken out of circulation in service to the common man and put into some investment that simply produces more paper rather than more jobs…. Congratulations! You have it all!

Now what?

I read some data recently and it struck me as sad…. The whole wealth of the USA is divided like this:

1% of the US population owns 70% of the wealth. Of the remainder 8%is owned by the Saudis. The remaining 22% is shared amongst the other 99% of the population. The most interesting statistic is that 20% of US citizens THINK they are in the 1%. !!! *smile*
I have just been in Bali designing my new collection. I was deeply absorbed in my work when I got the news that Obama had won the vote to become the next President of the US. The energy shift in the consciousness of the world that night was profound. I could feel it in the air, a kind of certainty of change for the better! A sense of excitement and hope….. Trust in the future… Be here now.

Be in joy, find your center, breathe, it is time to invest wisely in things that bring joy, peace and help sustain a true sense of self worth. This is the energy that came to me as I was designing, on the banks of a sacred river, deep in the rice fields of Bali….
I am here now in the Lava Desert of the Big Island, expressing my creativity in a different way. Sending lightness and love, wonder and the divine right for curiosity.
It is time for me to come out of my cave and share my gifts with the world… Don’t you feel like that?

I do!

Its time to stop taking it personally and step up to our destiny path with courage and strength. Perseverance and clear perception, I pray we may all be blessed with gifts that allow for wisdom to rise above ignorance.

Its time to get a voice and speak your piece. Let me know what you think, how you are handling things and which of my pieces inspires you the most and why!

Blazing Tales of Wonder, remembering all we have ever been and are about to become your sister through chaos and comfort Shankari xxx